See that birdbath in the last picture? That is about 2 1/2 feet tall. I think we got 8 more inches of snow last night. The only good thing about it is that the sun is out and the sky is blue and the trees look sugar-coated.

I promise I'll stop posting screenshots. I seem to be having fun doing that lately. I just wanted to show the temperature. Minus 8! (-22C)! Feels like minus 24! (-31C)! That is just insane.  Conversions are provided for my international readers.

Java and I have to go out to acupuncture. Thankfully her appointment is at noon so it should be up over zero by that time. This winter is very cold and has been very snowy but I don't feel the seasonal hibernation kind of feelings I usually have. Maybe it's my vitamin D level or my blood sugars, but I feel good even though it's snowy, cold and dark.

On Saturday we saw The King's Speech. It was very good. We are lucky that there is a theater about 1/2 hour away that shows the more obscure films that don't make it to the mainstream cinemas. We've seen some interesting films there. The owner is a huge movie buff and also owns a drive-in in the next town over; I think it's the last one in the state. The theater is on the top floor of the town hall and they show old movies for free on Sunday afternoon. It's pretty cool. http://www.wiltontownhalltheatre.com/

I finished the little Boston Terrier Valentine beads I'm making for a Valentine's card swap on the Woofboard. I'm going to make them into keychains and also provide a zipper pull clip. I have both because I had to go to two different stores to get the split rings, if you can believe it. I bought the zipper pulls at the first store just in case I couldn't find the split rings at the second store, but I did.  Here's a picture of the beads. They aren't cleaned yet in this picture, but you get the idea.

Just another plug for http://phoebeallens.com/ the hummingbird camera. I can't stop watching it. She's so cute and the babies are so ugly.

Brrr. That is all.

 

This is what my back yard looks like. I am beginning to think that winter will never end, even though it kind of just started. We've had three major snowstorms in 10 days and there is about two feet of snow on the ground, with more to come on Wednesday. 

 

The dog yard is buried and the snow blower has broken down but seems to be easily fixable. 

 

The birds do love that we put out food for them. They are very active when it snows and when it's so cold.

 We are supposed to experience very cold conditions in the next few days, with highs of only 10 degrees F. and lows in the negative 10's F. I am not looking forward to this.

In the meantime, I'm dreaming of spring and my water garden and watching this little hummingbird raise her chicks on this webcam:  http://phoebeallens.com/ 

My mom bought me a new camera and I'm pretty sure I love it! I took this picture of the dogs at night with no flash and I think it came out great.

We had a fun weekend at Woodstock. I love hanging around with my family. They are fun and funny.

Robert and I worked on my bead room and have gotten it to be manageable. Most of the beads are put away in their cubbies and I even restrung a necklace for someone while sitting at my clean table. I still have one cabinet I want to empty the drawers and organize the contents of, but that can wait. I also want to put a semi-comfy chair in the corner for a place to bead and relax.

Pretty soon we are going on our annual visit to Vermont. This is my favorite time of the year. Family, fun, knitting by the fire and relaxation. I'm really looking forward to this. Here are some pictures from our visit last year.

Crock Pot Oatmeal

 4 cups water

1 cup steel-cut oats

1/2 cup half-and-half

I have a cute $15 3-quart crock pot from Target. I bought it because I also have a $175 6.5-quart All-Clad Slow Cooker. While I love the All-Clad, it's just very large for small meal preparation. Since having the new gadget I've been keeping my ear out for things I can cook in it. In the past few days, both my mother and my sister mentioned crock pot oatmeal. I was intrigued. I bought the ingredients, found a recipe online and started the crock pot on "Low" as the recipe called for just before I went to bed. 

I woke up at around 1:30 am and found that I could smell the oatmeal cooking. There was a strong smell of warm half-and-half pervading the bedroom. I knew this wasn't a good sign, but made the choice not to get up and stir, turn it down or otherwise tend to the oatmeal. After all, this is why I was making it overnight instead of in the morning. That decision was a mistake. When I got up in the morning, I checked the oatmeal and found that the middle was runny and raw and the outside was browned in a solid ring and stuck to the walls of the crock pot. Blech. Robert was game to try it anyway so he doctored it up with raisins and brown sugar and took a taste. He declared it to taste something like wallpaper paste and so we chunked it. I ended up making soft-boiled eggs.

So I tried again. I knew the recipe was right; I felt that the fault lied with the temperature of the crock pot. So yesterday I tried again. This time during the day so I could be awake to watch it. I prepared another recipe's worth and this time set the crock pot on "warm". I wasn't sure it would get hot enough to cook but it did. It was great; we re-heated it this morning in the microwave.

So my advice is use the "warm" setting and not the "low" setting to make crock pot oatmeal.

Happy New Year! I hope that 2011 is better in every way for everyone.

I think I've decided on my resolutions. I'm not going to do the "lose weight" "get healthy" route because I'm already trying to do that anyway. So in 2011 I'm going to make more beads instead of not doing anything and also I'm going to take more pictures and blog more. Those should be easy enough to keep. I hope. The ones I listed the other day also apply.

This afternoon we are going to Sarah's for a little get-together. It should be fun. Elizabeth got a guitar for Christmas so Robert and I are going to help her out a little bit. She's only five, so I don't know how much we can teach her or she will retain, but it might make it easier for Sarah to listen to actual chords than to listen to the noise that Elizabeth has been making.

How awesome are these shoes? They are metallic gold, with sequins sewn onto the sides. I was lucky enough to score these from my friend Ofilia who bought them in Murano, found they did not fit and sold them in the garage sale on Lampwork, Etc. I wore them on Christmas and Christmas Eve. I love, love, love these shoes.

I've been doing a little thinking on New Year's resolutions. I'm not sure I'm going to make any, because they don't last and I always break them. I think that I would like to be thankful every day, even when I'm not having a good day, because I think it's important to recognize the good even if you're feeling bad. I also want to increase my post count on the Woof Board.

New tank for Junior

We finally got our 11-year-old goldfish a new tank. Previously he was living in a 10-gallon tank, and we decided to upgrade. I hope he'll be OK in his new, larger home. I used some of the water from his old home to "seed" the new one.  I also am using the same filter, as it harbors beneficial bacteria.

We thought we'd put him in the new pond next spring, but I'm very hesitant to do that because there's a heron in the neighborhood and I don't want to provide it with an easy meal of my oldest pet. We thought the new tank would be a nice Christmas gift to him and to ourselves.

The orange fish in the background are fake - they're on the scene we put behind the tank so you don't just see wall.

We went to visit my mother yesterday and went to Exeter for lunch. Here is my mom and Martha in front of a store with very cute clothes for children.

We went to the Loaf and Ladle, a nice little sandwich/salad/soup shop. I experimented with my camera by leaving it on the table while I took the pictures.

Martha wanted to get in on the picture, too.

Elizabeth ate nothing of her lunch. She didn't touch her sandwich and ate only a few bites of her soup. On the way home she was complaining that she was hungry. Martha and I told her that we have no sympathy for her and that maybe she should learn to eat when there's food put in front of her. Good thing we're not mothers, huh?

The bubbler in the pond has created a dome of ice over the fountain part. It's kind of cool.

Yesterday a sweet little dog named Seamus passed away while undergoing an MRI. I never had the pleasure of meeting him in person, but grew to know his sweet, spunky personality online. He had been being treated for disc disease like Java, which is why I think I got so drawn into his story. I felt very connected to him and his owner Colleen, because we had been through the same things. Colleen was finally able to get enough money to get Seamus the MRI he needed because crate rest and medicine were not working. He went under yesterday and did not wake up. It turned out that in addition to the bad discs in his back, he also had a brain tumor. I don't know if the tumor caused him to stop breathing, but the only blessing is that his parents did not have to make the decision of what to do after finding out the results. Rest in Peace, little Seamus.

New Hat!

 

Here is a new crop of buttons. Some are experiments and others will have homes on hand-knitted garments. The red one is for Martha's coat, as I misread the directions and only gave her 5 buttons, when she needed 6. The blue ones are for my hat and cowl. They are Uroboros Alpine Blue with Silver Lake and  House of Blues frit. The square is black with ochre and red ; just an experiment. The black round one with the goldstone swirl is for my sweater coat when I finish it. The two on the front left are Kalypso, reduced and imprinted with a Jim Moore texture stamp. Fun! I had a good time experimenting.

 

The hat, taken without a flash and with the buttons placed.

 

The hat, on my head. The buttons have been sewn on. Just in time because it is coooooold out!

I heard from the lady who bought the BT tree and she loves it. She sent me this picture with the tree and her dog. I'm glad she's happy with it. I always worry. Her dog is very cute. I think his name is Vader.

I also have given up on that particular hat I was making. I was having a terrible time with it. I'm a pretty good knitter, but this one was really making me crazy. I was ripping out, knitting, ripping out, knitting. Bleah. Life is way too short, and knitting should be fun. I have ordered myself some different yarn - some of my favorite in fact - Malabrigo Merino. It's so soft and yummy. I also chose a different pattern - one that will need buttons for a decoration. I love Amy's system for making buttons. It is so easy. And fun.

I spent the morning watching TV from my childhood. I found the Poldark series on Netflix streaming, so I watched the first three episodes. Martha and I really liked that Captain Poldark, and 35 years later he's still pretty cute.

Carmen, thanks for giving me the cyber-elbow. I enjoyed the daily posts, too. I will try not to neglect my blog.

 

 

I did it! I posted every day in November. I'm happy that December is on the way. We finished decorating the house and I'm looking forward to diving into my advent calendar. This one has chocolate and a little verse behind each door.

If you're looking for an on-line advent calendar, there's a nice selection at this blog post. There are spiritual ones, one geared towards children and lots more. I've bookmarked my favorite to check each day.

Here's the start of my new hat. I kind of like it. The yarn is soft and pretty; not really my colors, but it matches my coat. I bought the coat on the internet and I love everything about it except the color. The website showed a vibrant blue and when it came it was powder blue; not my favorite. It's very close to the color at the very inner edge of the rim of the hat, when it promised to be more like the second to last color in the hat. I almost sent it back, but the other color choices were even duller. Plus, I loved everything else about the coat, especially the warmth.

I sent off the Boston Terrier Christmas tree this afternoon. The ending price was $107.50! I'm happy that it made that much for the Bostons in need.

 

I've been skimping on the photos the last few days. Now that things have settled back down to normal, I can post pictures again. Today I began decorating for the season. It's fun and makes the house look festive. To me, the season is all about "light" and  humans' craving for the sunshine to return. I love to put candles in the windows and shine lights on the wreaths decorating my house.
 

This morning, the pond was frozen over for the first time, except for the little area where the bubbler is. Its job is to keep the water from freezing solid so it's good to see that it's working. I've been enjoying watching the birds on our new feeders. It really doesn't take them long to find them.

I haven't finished my Einstein Coat yet. I have one more sleeve and the collar to go. I am going to break my own rules and start another project before I've finished my previous one, because I really need a new hat for winter. I have a new coat and my old hat will not match, so I bought some pretty matching yarn and I have a pattern picked out so I'm going to start that today. After I finish, I'll finish the EC. I promise.

Yesterday we went to see Tangled, a very sweet, funny movie. Plus it was in 3D, which is very fun too. It's a cartoon, and I think they lend themselves particularly well to 3D.

Today, we bought some wreaths for our doors, two new birdfeeders and some seed. I'm hoping the bears are asleep by now and we'll take the feeders down by April when the bears wake up. We still have to decorate by placing candles in the windows, but I think I might save that for tomorrow. We'll see.